


Steam

by Froggy1988



Series: Cassarian Advent Calendar 2020 [11]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: But in my mind, Cassarian Advent Calender 2020 (Disney), Cheeky, Day 11, Eugene trying to be helpful, F/M, Just Cass admiring Varian shirtless, Totally objectifying cartoon characters here, with all that mechanical work Varian does at some point he's going to be BUILT!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:48:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28007229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggy1988/pseuds/Froggy1988
Summary: When Varian confesses to Eugene he's worried that the soon to return Cassandra will still see him as a child, Eugene decides to take matters into his own hands.Cassarian Advent Caleder day 11
Relationships: Cassandra/Varian (Disney: Tangled)
Series: Cassarian Advent Calendar 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035303
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41





	Steam

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings : This is probably nowhere near as smutty as the title or rating suggest but I am being ultra cautious with my ratings lately. 
> 
> So... shirtless Varian gets totally objectified.

Steam

Eugene

Eugene almost backed away when he opened the door, the rush of air that came out was so hot and humid it was shocking. He took his red captains uniform off hanging it from the doorknob and leaving him in the plain short sleeved shirt he wore underneath. He took a deep breath as he descended into the corridors and chambers that ran underneath the castle. He could hear the slight banging and the moving around before he got to the bottom of the stairs.

“Varian!” He called looking around the gigantic cylinders that ran the city’s hot water system. A familiar face poked out from behind one the cylinders.

“Just a minute.”

Eugene heard the clink of metal and some muffled grunts before Varian appeared fully.

“Sorry about that.” He said, gesturing with the spanner in his hand. Eugene gave a slight frown as he looked at his young friend.

“Don’t you need like.. protection?” He asked commenting on the fact that Varian was only wearing trousers, boots, and gloves, leaving him bare skinned from his waist up.

“It’s fine.” Varian said waving the comment off. “I’m just doing a recalibration, besides its so hot down here.”

Eugene shrugged.

“Fair enough. I just wanted to let you know Rapunzel received a letter from Cassandra this morning, it looks like she’ll be arriving soon, within the next few hours I’d say. So are you going to come up and say hello to her?”  


Varian’s mouth set into a frown, and he concentrated on the spanner in his hand, twirling it around thoughtfully.

“I thought you’d be happy to hear she’s coming?” Eugene said confused by the reaction. “Haven’t the two of you been swapping letters for years now?”  
  


“No, no I am. It’s just.” Varian sighed. “I was seventeen when she left, and everybody just saw me as a kid. I just… I want her to see me as something more, as an adult now. Not an annoying kid with a crush, who used to follow her around.”  
  


“So you want her to see you as an annoying twenty-year-old who follows her around now?”  
  


“I will throw this at you.” Varian threatened lifting his spanner up.

“Okay, okay.” Eugene laughed. As he looked at his friend he thought about how different he was from three years before. In Eugene’s mind there could be no mistaking the capable young man before him for a child, everybody in the castle had ceased to see him that way many years before, and yet, Varian was his own worst enemy in that regards, always expecting people to talk down to him or not take him seriously. As he looked at the young man he realised that he had also changed in some other rather distinct ways, an idea started to form in his mind, and he grinned at his own brilliance. “Look. Leave it to me okay?”

“What are you planning?” Varian asked wide eyed.

“Oh you’ll see.”  
  


“Uh, I’d rather if you just forgot I said anything.”

“Varian, Varian, Varian. Have faith, when have I ever let you down?”

“Well….”  
  


“Don’t answer that.” Eugene smirked and started to walk away.

“Eugene? Eugene, you’ve forgotten right? You’re not going to do anything embarrassing are you?”  


“What no, besides you’re perfectly capable of embarrassing yourself without my help.” Eugene said smugly.

***

Cassandra

“Do I really need to go down there?” Cassandra asked blinking as a rush of hot moist air hit her in the face. Eugene stood beside the door he had just opened with a flourish.

“I told you, we’ve remodelled the castle. I need to give you the tour, so you don’t get lost.”

“But when am I ever going to need to go down into the laundry?” Cassandra asked.

“It’s not the laundry.” Eugene answered.

Cassandra sighed, she’d forgotten how annoying Eugene could be, and to think a few hours before she had been eager to get to Corona because she was missing everyone so much. She looked down the staircase leading into the depths of the castle, wondering why it was that Eugene seemed so eager to get her down there. If she knew Rapunzel, there was bound to be some kind of surprise coming her way at some point during the day, she wondered if perhaps this was it.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs she looked around, in front of her were gigantic tanks, with all kinds of pipes and dials, she instantly recognised Varian’s work – the hot water project he had been working on, but she still didn’t understand why it was Eugene felt it necessary to bring her down here. As she looked around confused she heard a little clanking, on guard she took a step forwards, tilting her head slightly to look around. The first thing she saw was a strong forearm, perfectly defined muscles, tensing under light tanned skin, dotted with little scars and burn marks.

“Huh? Whose..” A confused voice said, before the rest of the body appeared leaning suspended from a ladder. A thin toned body, stomach with the slightest definition of abdominal muscles, a wide chest, a dark splatter of hair across skin that was gleaming with sweat. Cassandra swallowed nervously as she felt an uneasy clenching in her stomach. She glanced upwards and came upon intensely staring blue eyes.

“Cassandra!” The man gasped.

There was something very familiar about the voice, the eyes, and as he jumped down to the floor Cassandra let out a gasp as the familiarity suddenly became certainty.

“Varian!”

“Ah! You’re still here.” Eugene said walking over with a forced casualness. “Just giving Cass here the official tour.”

As Eugene was talking Cassandra watched Varian carefully taking off his glove, his actions slow but deliberate as he picked up a shirt that had been lying on a chair off to the side and pulled it over his head. Cassandra tried not to stare at the muscles of his shoulder blades bunched and relaxed under the thin material as he stretched his arms through the sleeves.

Varian was muttering something under his breath, but he turned to Cassandra with a wide smile.

“Cass. It’s good to see you.”  
  


“It’s good to see you too.” Cassandra said, almost immediately she felt her cheeks growing hot when she thought about the double meaning of what she had just said. “Uh.. you’ve grown.”

“Maybe a couple of inches.” Varian said awkwardly. They stared at each other for another moment before Varian held his arms up and took a tentative step forward. Cassandra nervously stepped towards him and let herself be hugged for a moment, she didn’t know what to do with her hands, awkwardly she laid them flat against upper back feeling how broad he had gotten there, how firm the muscles were under her fingers. She pulled away as quickly as she could. She had not been expecting this, when she had been writing back and forth to Varian she had still been picturing him as the boyish seventeen-year-old he’d been when she’d last seen him, all awkward angles that he’d not quite grown into, but the man in front of her was… well clearly a man.

“Sorry, I uh.. “He scratched the back of his head. “I smell.”

“That’s okay.” She said cursing herself for the blush she knew was on her cheeks. “I smell like a horse.”  
  


“I like it… wait, no I don’t like horse smell.” Varian said with a nervous laugh. “I don’t mind it, but I mean you don’t smell at all, well you smell, but you smell lovely. Uh…” There was another awkward pause between them. “Showers!” Varian said loudly. “You should try the showers, hot water.” He said pointing at the hot water tanks.

“Oh Yes.” Cassandra said finally feeling on solid ground. “You wrote me about them, I’ve been looking forwards to trying it out.”

“So!” Eugene said stepping between them, making Cassandra jump slightly as she’d almost forgotten he was there. “That concludes the hot water tanks, we should get you to your room, you’ll have plenty of time to reconnect at the dinner tonight.”  
  


“But what about the rest of the tour.” Cassandra asked as Eugene started to lead her out by the shoulders.

“Oh, bedrooms upstairs, prison down, you’ll figure it out.”

“You’re acting weird. Do you know that?”  
  


“Weird? Moi? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

***  
  


Later – Varian

Varian tugged at his shirt sleeves. He was never fully comfortable in evening wear, but he was even more uncomfortable tonight because he’d brought the shirt and black dinner jacket specially. He’d wanted to make an impression, a confident, suave, grown -up impression – it had been part of the plan to get Cassandra to see him in a different light. A plan that had been scuppered by his so-called best friend. Seeing Eugene across the dinning room Varian frowned as he headed over to him.

“Eugene.” Varian said clasping the man’s upper arm as he turned him towards him.

“Hey! Easy on the silk.” Eugene said brushing him off.

“What were you thinking of?” Varian said in a hissing whisper.

“What?” Eugene answered not trying to be quiet.

Varian looked around nervously, making sure that Cassandra hadn’t arrived yet, she hadn’t, and neither had Rapunzel, it was just him Eugene Lance and the girls in the dining room.

“Why did you take her down to the boiler room of all places? I wasn’t even dressed.”  
  


“That was why little bro. I know women, and that was a woman who was most definitely noticing you were a man. That’s what you wanted wasn’t it?”  
  


“Do you have any idea… wait what?” Varian asked as something about what Eugene just said struck him. He stopped and thought for a moment.

“Are you saying that she might not have been put off by me not being in my shirt?”

“I’m saying, it’s about time you realized that all that work on those machines has changed your shape, and she most definitely noticed said change in shape.”

“But it was awkward.”

Eugene put his hands around Varian’s shoulder turning him towards the doorway.

“Listen to somebody who’s always known how to use what they’ve got. If Cassandra walks through that door in a few moments and blushes, then turns away slightly – that is a woman who is enamoured with a man.”  
  


“Couldn’t she just be embarrassed?”  
  


“No, because Cassandra has grown up in the guards and I doubt a man with out a shirt on would leave her blushing, but a man without a shirt on that she was attracted to, now that, that would be a different matter. Just wait.”

But it turned out that Varina didn’t have to wait, because as Eugene was pointing towards the door Cassandra, a vision in dark blue velvet walked through the door with Rapunzel, and as she talked to her friend she looked over and caught Varian’s eye. Her cheeks grew red, and she glanced down, her eyes practically hid by thick eyelashes.

“Oh.” Varian breathed.

“You can thank me later.” Eugene whispered.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, are you all doing okay - tomorrows story is by myself (froggy1988) and it's angsty fluffy teenage mess - it's called cookies.


End file.
